San Francisco newspaper sues rival paper over low advertising rates

Thursday

SAN FRANCISCO- The San Francisco Examiner has filed a lawsuit alleging that the city's dominant daily newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has slashed advertising prices to stifle competition.

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Examiner has filed a lawsuit alleging that the city’s dominant daily newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has slashed advertising prices to stifle competition.

The suit claims Chronicle owner Hearst Corp. and officials at the paper took advantage of its greater corporate resources to “selectively and secretly” target Examiner advertisers with “below-cost and discriminatory offers designed to injure the Examiner.”

The two newspapers shared business operations and revenue from 1965 until 2000, when then- Examiner-owner Hearst acquired the Chronicle and sold the Examiner to a local family.

The suit alleges that the Chronicle charged significantly higher rates for ad space as expected after selling the Examiner, but reversed course when the new Examiner owners, San Francisco Newspaper Co., took over in 2011.

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